2014 World Cup: Portugal fretting over Cristiano Ronaldo as hamstring injury strikes again

Cristiano Ronaldo could miss the Copa del Rey final and the Champions League semi-final with a hamstring injury.

Ghana's group opponents Portugal are anxious over the fitness of their talismanic playmaker Cristiano for the World Cup in June as he has aggravated his hamstring injury.

His Spanish club Real Madrid fear they could be without their star man for the Copa del Rey final and perhaps even the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals due to the injury.

Madrid on Thursday confirmed that tests had found a problem in Ronaldo's left hamstring, although the club declined to give an estimate of how much time he might miss.

"The tests conducted on Cristiano Ronaldo have detected a muscular injury to his left hamstring," a statement said. "This is pending developments."

Reports in Spain have suggested Ronaldo could miss around 15 days with the injury, a time span that would force him to miss the Copa final against Barcelona on April 16, as well as the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, which would be on April 22 or 23. The Champions League draw takes place on Friday.

If the injury problem persists it could affect his chances of playing at the World Cup in Brazil in two months' time which could be a damaging blow for Portugal.

Ronaldo sat out the second leg of Madrid's quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, and after the match Carlo Ancelotti had claimed he was suffering only a minor problem and should be back in time for this weekend's meeting with Almeria.

"Cristiano was fine, we didn't want to risk him, because of the intensity of the tie, and we didn't have to," Ancelotti said after the game.

"Hopefully he's better soon and he is ready for the semi-final. It's not a big problem because if it were, he wouldn't have been on the bench. He has time to recover and could play on Saturday."

Ronaldo had trained on Monday before the Dortmund match but withdrew with the injury after only a few minutes.